James Robert Thompson

Slammed by winter’s recent and, to my mind, long overdue wrath, I was able to take refuge in summers long past, thanks to Jerry Ziemann, who wrote to ask, “Is Waveland golf course made up of nine of the most famous golf holes from across the U.S.A.? I remember seeing a diagram on the starter’s shed.”

As so do we begin the eighth installment of "Ask Rick," that experiment that began a year or so ago as a way for Chicago Tribune readers to ask me questions they might have about the place we all call home. The first batch of 2019 questions, comments, criticisms and bits of praise and, as always, some craziness that came to

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Slammed by winter’s recent and, to my mind, long overdue wrath, I was able to take refuge in summers long past, thanks to Jerry Ziemann, who wrote to ask, “Is Waveland golf course made up of nine of the most famous golf holes from across the U.S.A.? I...

This time in 2015, Bruce Rauner looked well-positioned to be Illinois’ next governor-for-life. Before his inauguration, the rookie pol, a trim and vigorous 58, had the potential to write his name in state history next to Jim Thompson and

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, who served as director of Fermilab in Batavia for many years and helped create the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, died Wednesday at a nursing home in Rexburg, Idaho, at the age of 96.
“His impact...

Philip O’Connor was a longtime state official and campaign manager who oversaw the Illinois Department of Insurance and the Illinois Commerce Commission and also managed winning gubernatorial campaigns for Republicans Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar.
“He...

Members of a state Senate committee scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to quiz Illinois State Toll Highway Authority officials about questionable no-bid contracts and patronage within the agency. Good. Give them heck, senators.
A series of stories by the...

Bernard Carey, a former Cook County state’s attorney who won office as a reform Republican in the wake of the 1969 police raid that killed Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and who helped kick off the wide-reaching judicial corruption...

I was once an assistant U. S. attorney. I was a Democrat in an office in which Republican Jim Thompson was the U.S. attorney. As a Democrat, I was on the prosecution team that prosecuted Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner Jr., a Democrat. I was also on the...

Mark Janus learned about public service from a young age, growing up as a Boy Scout in Springfield. He eventually became an Eagle Scout, and now he's passed along his knowledge to young men and women from the state's capital while leading scouting trips...

A few weeks after she collapsed outside the door of her Gold Coast condo, where she was found unconscious by the overnight doorman, Mary Frances Fagan sent an email to 30 of her friends.
“It takes a village to raise a child and a whole lot of...

It wasn't exactly the Boston Tea Party, but it took everything short of dumping Diet Coke into Lake Michigan for Cook County residents to force the repeal of an unpopular tax on sweetened beverages.
The county's penny-per-ounce "soda tax" will be no more...

I should let it go, I know.
President Donald Trump has said dozens, if not scores, of strange things since July 12, but I keep thinking about what he told reporters that night about his proposed border wall with Mexico during a group interview on Air...

"I've lived in Chicago for 50 years. In that time, Jim Thompson was governor, Jim Edgar, George Ryan, and I disagreed with them sometimes, but I never thought that they were unfit for their jobs or evil people. And that's where I am with this governor....

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.
Topspin
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle faces a world of woes on her own...

With the help of a group of Republican lawmakers, the House overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto to pass a budget for the first time in two years. The spending plan involves a $5 billion hike in income taxes: It raises the individual rate to 4.95 percent...

House Speaker Mike Madigan doesn't care much for manifestos.
When questioned over the years on his policy positions, Madigan usually resorts to bromides about how he supports the Democratic Party and its fight on behalf of the middle class. (Please...

Gov. Bruce Rauner's plan to sell the hulking James R. Thompson Center in the Loop is caught up in the triangular finger-pointing found at the core of many unresolved issues in Illinois government these days.The Republican governor blames Democratic...

As a sculptor of recycled materials, Alfred Vorreyer found creative inspiration in junkyards across Illinois.
Like the one in downstate Dowell, an old coal town that he happened upon on his way home from a trip to Texas.
"It was just eerie," Vorreyer...

I delivered this speech to a lunch-time crowd in Hinsdale at the end of September, so it's a bit dated. But it occurred to me today to post the text for whatever interest it might have before much of it expires.
The theme was looking ahead,...

Illinois takes pride in its farmland. The state has some of the world's richest soil, and three of every four acres in Illinois are dedicated to agriculture.
But Illinois' agricultural heritage is about much more than land and crops. It's about families....